Analysis of the influence of the grounding method on the measurement of direct current total electric field on a civil housing platform

Abstract Buildings near direct current transmission lines are sensitive to the electromagnetic environment, and the measurement of the electric field above them is important in engineering design and environmental assessment in China. The models of buildings and probes in the ion flow field were established to explore the accurate measurement method of the electric field above the building. Based on the upstream finite element method and the predictor–corrector method, the influence of whether the probe was grounded or not above the building was studied. On this basis, simulation experiments and real‐type experiments were carried out. The results show that when the electrical conductivity of the building was greater than 10−10 S/m, being grounded or not would not change the results. When the building conductivity was between 10−11 and 10−12 S/m, the electric field measurement results would be increased by 30% to 120% after grounding. In the real‐type experiments on the platform with a plywood roof, the relative error in the electric field when grounded or not was only 2.6%. This proved the reliability of the calculated results. In this paper, the measuring method of the DC space charge‐modified electric field above buildings was analyzed first, and the conclusion that ground wire can be cancelled above buildings with general materials was presented. The research results can provide a technical basis for the accurate measurement of the electric field above the buildings near DC transmission lines.